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The Adtimes Newspaper
August 20, 2010
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Storied Islandia Faces Extinction On August 24 Reporting Gary Nelson Biscayne Bay “Town” Hasn’t Paid Taxes In Decades ISLANDIA (CBS4) — Park Ranger Frank Stack and his wife and daughter hopped out of a boat at the Biscayne National Park visitors center Thursday, tying up to the dock. It’s a drill they know well. Whenever the Stacks go anywhere, they go by boat. They live in the middle of southern Biscayne Bay in a string of islands known as Islandia. They are among only eight residents of water-locked Islandia, an actual town created a half-century ago. If voters approve a charter item on the August 24th primary ballot, Islandia will officially become history. The breathtakingly beautiful island chain was incorporated as a city by a group of landowners and developers in 1960. Chubby Checker topped the charts that year with “The Twist.” John F. Kennedy was elected president. A motley bunch in England formed a band that would become the Beatles. Islandia’s founders had grandiose plans.
“It was a grab on the part of some investors to develop this pristine area in south Biscayne Bay,” said Dr. Paul George, historian at Miami-Dade College. “They were high-rollers who were going to build resorts and golf courses and expensive homes.” Islandia’s founding fathers planned to build a bridge from the mainland. The tourists, the gamblers, the well-heeled would flock to the place and the developers would would be rich. The vote creating Islandia was unanimous. All 13 “residents” voted in favor. Election organizers brought a voting machine to the island on the bed of a pick-up truck brought in by a ferry. Islandia’s first mayor, Luther Brooks, took to the dais of Islandia’s town hall located in the city of South Miami - and declared that he and his fellow citizens would create a community “like none we have in Dade County.” “We hope it to be the finest community in South Florida,” the mayor said, a portrait of himself hanging on the wall behind him. The best-laid plans of Islandia’s founders came under immediate attack by conservationists who viewed the proposed development as an attack on the South Florida environment, already besieged by an-ever growing sprawl of motels, tourist attractions and Stuckey’s
Stands. Opponents saw what was happening to the bridge-linked Florida Keys and drew a line in Biscayne Bay. The late vacuum cleaner magnate, Herbert Hoover, Jr., made defeat of the Islandia development a personal passion. He donated $100,000, a fortune at the time, to the opposition. The late congressman Dante Fascell persuaded the interior department to conduct impact assessments. Fascell championed legislation that created a “National Monument” designation for Biscayne Bay. The Islandia developers, sensing defeat, bulldozed a limerock road up the middle of the largest island in Islandia, Elliott Key. The swath came to be known as the “Spite Road.” After Congress created Biscayne National Park, all but assuring an end to any development schemes, Islandia’s founders faded away. The town has collected no taxes, filed no revenue reports with the state and held no elections in decades. The Florida Legislature passed a resolution asking Miami-Dade county to formally dissolve the town of Islandia. The item on the August 24th primary ballot would amend the charter to allow
the county to abolish municipalities with fewer than 20 voters. Only the longdormant Islandia, with six registered voters, fits that bill. Paul George, the historian, called the charter amendment an official - and symbolic - final nail for Islandia, a bad idea whose time never came. “This is the last symbol of development in what is today a National Park,” George said. “And once it is obliterated through dis-incorporation, it will be the end of the whole issue.” Park Ranger Stack and his wife, Melissa, reflected on the story of Islandia as they soaked in the sun and stunning views of Biscayne Bay Thursday with their daughter Akayla, the Miami skyline visible across the water miles away. “I think it would have really devastated the whole ecology here,” Melissa Stack said of the failed Islandia development scheme. “I think that it’s good that it never came to be.” “This is really a very special place that our forefathers have saved for us,” Frank Stack said. (© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.) news powered by